The present invention relates network devices in general and in particular to providing virtualized network services and network applications using network devices.
Data communications networks, such as local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) often include a variety of network devices for sending, receiving, directing, and optimizing network data traffic. Examples of common network devices include routers, switches, storage-area network front-ends and interfaces, network-address translation (NAT) and firewall devices, and wireless network devices such as access points, bridges, and repeaters. More specialized network devices include standalone print-servers, streaming video and music servers, logging and network management devices, and network monitoring and traffic inspection devices.
WAN accelerators are another example of a network device. WAN accelerators optimize network traffic to improve network performance in reading and/or writing data over a network. WAN accelerators are referred to in the art by many different terms, including, but not limited to, transaction accelerators, WAN optimizers, WAN optimization controllers (WOCs), wide-area data services (WDS) appliances, WAN traffic optimizers (WTOs), and protocol accelerators or optimizers. Additionally, techniques for optimizing network traffic to improve network performance in reading and/or writing data over a network are referred to in the art by many different terms, including, but not limited to, WAN acceleration, transaction acceleration, transaction pipelining, protocol pipelining, request prediction, application flow acceleration, and protocol acceleration. Herein, the term “WAN accelerator” is used to refer to such devices and “WAN acceleration” is used to refer to such techniques.
Most network devices provide a fixed or limited set of functionality. For example, a switch device redirects network traffic. In another example, a WAN accelerator optimizes network traffic passing through a WAN between two or more LANs. Although the fixed or limited set of network device functionality eases the installation and enhances the reliability of network devices, there is an unmet need to enhance network devices with additional functions or applications without compromising reliability and ease of management. Furthermore, there is an unmet need to flexibly direct network traffic to one or more additional functions or network applications provided by a network device. Additionally, there is an unmet need to communicate additional data associated with network traffic to one or more additional functions or network applications provided by a network device.